Microstrip antennas are used in many applications and have advantageous features such as being lightweight, having a low profile, being planar, and generally of relatively low cost to manufacture. Additionally, the planar structure of a microstrip antenna permits the microstrip antenna to be conformed to a variety of surfaces having different shapes. This results in the microstrip antenna being applicable to many military and commercial devices, such as use on aircraft or space antennas.
However, the application of many microstrip antennas are limited due to their inherent narrow, less than 10%, frequency bandwidth. While there have been attempts to increase this bandwidth, they have had limited success. Additionally, previous wideband antennas have been bulky and relatively complex such as horn, helix, or log periodic antennas. Therefore, there is a need for a wide bandwidth antenna that combines the benefits of a microstrip antenna with the wideband features of relatively more costly and complex antennas.